Article from the Member of the Board of CyAQ Dr Adrian Ioannou, Six Sigma Black Belt, CEng, MIMechE, MBCI, MCQI, MIEE, PECB Certified Trainer
Four months ago, did we really think that a pandemic would happen and that such an event would have affected our business, our employees, our families and our lives?
I guess not, and if anyone had brought up such a possibility a year ago, colleagues and the general public would have laughed and shrugged such a comment off. Well, the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is now reality and has already demonstrated how important Business Continuity Planning (BCP) is to organizations, mainly when supplemented by a well constructed Disaster Recovery (DR) strategy. The pandemic has made it perfectly clear how vulnerable governments, organizations, employees and citizens are and in the process has exposed long neglected weaknesses in processes and systems. The world is being assaulted by an invincible virus and one which we do not fully understand.
Bearing in mind that the Coronavirus disease may put many organizations at risk, through short staffing, unavailable workers, unavailable facilities and services; one should look towards setting in motion their disaster recovery and business continuity plans so that their organisation can sustain business operations and ultimately remain in business.
The Coronavirus in itself can’t shut down the organisation’s systems, operations, or even services. This happens when management did not sufficiently prepare them for such kind of a disruption. What would have happened if all of a sudden we experience a power outage, which is the loss of our electrical power network supply? Under the current situation and such a likely scenario, with so many employees quarantined at home, even such a power network outage can have a huge impact on our business functions.
It is now imperative, that management must revisit their existing disaster recovery business continuity plan (if one exists) and adjust such plan accordingly to reflect the business and operational needs and how the business disruptions caused by the Coronavirus can be addressed. This action is not being part of a checklist, it is being part of the MUST ACT NOW list.
For sure, it is not often that businesses face a pandemic, but natural disasters, man-made disasters, security threats (such as a malware attacks), fires and network power outages are a reality and part of our every day lives. Therefore, if businesses want to ensure a smooth recovery process and continuity of its operations, it is critical that they do a risk assessment and develop a recovery services strategy with disaster recovery and business continuity plans in place.
Over the past 20 years the world has experienced serious infectious outbreaks and politicians, governments, scientists and all organizations should have taken note of such a possible event, but they simply overlooked the potential threat of a pandemic. The world had experienced bird flu (H5N1), swine flu (H1N1) and Ebola. Luckily, these diseases did not spread as quickly and easily as Coronavirus, so their impact was more limited globaly. Even so, subsequently to the H1N1 pandemic the risks associated with infectious diseases should have been considered in a BCP and DRP. As we can now see, rather late in the pandemic cycle of events, it was not!
Apart of being faced with the spread of an infectious pandemic, businesses may also face other business disruptions such as lockdowns, transport stoppages, network loss, revenue loss, data loss, security vulnerabilities, staff loss, threats and limited productivity, to name just a few examples.
Furthermore, during a major disaster, technical suppliers may not be able to come on site, supply products and services or even they themselves receive parts or materials from their own suppliers through the supply chain. In a lockdown situation, the movement of people is restricted; borders and transport services are closed, and so forth. This will most definitely adversely impact a company’s operational structure and ultimately, its revenue and survival.
For that reason, what should an organisation do to ensure business continuity and a the return to a smooth recovery process following a severe disruption? For starters, it is crucial to understand what you currently have and what requirements are to be put in place to be able to do so. Management should carry out a risk assessment, establish a recovery strategy, make concrete continuity plans and test these. If not, organizations stumble unprepared into catastrophe, leaving management less able to address the situation calmly and appropriately.
There are many ways that management can address this subject matter and Coronavirus has provided them with many answers to questions which in the past were just hypothetical and part of training role play. Management should use this Coronavirus pandemic event as an opportunity to learn and develop processes, remote working, security methods and systems to protect their business from a similar attack in the not too distant future.
One can safely state that, almost no current organization has ever dealt with an outbreak of a virus like COVID-19 (Coronavirus) and the adverse impact it has had on employee health and their families, contaminated workplace facilities, questionable food sources, stock outs, supply chain disruptions, lockdowns, and other facets of business operations.
The World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020 declared COVID-19 a pandemic and the WHO defines a PANDEMIC as global spread of a “New Disease”. But as we have witnessed since then when COVID-19 started spreading, quite a number of companies took precautionary measures, such as putting into practice customer and staff web conferencing, disinfecting offices and conference rooms, cancelling non-essential travel, prohibiting large group meetings, dividing the workforce between multiple facilities, implementing shift work and other measures, but it is becoming clear that so much more will likely to be required. Such measures will totally depend on the type of business one is involved in.
One cannot stress far enough that, management should take immediate action in either developing or revisiting their business continuity plan because no industry is immune to this Coronavirus pandemic. That is because little is known about how it spreads, how long it remains potent on surfaces, the human incubation period and what safeguards beyond quarantine are truly effective.
Finally, the Coronavirus pandemic crisis was impossible to predict with conventional wisdom and existing forecasting tools. On the other hand, there are many lessons governments and companies can learn and take forward once the crisis has passed and they’ve had a chance to analyze their response.
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